Castle of Lost Memories
by KHGiggle
Summary: Sequel to Sora the Maelstrom. Now that Sora-tachi have defeated Ansem, they have to figure out how to get home. That's easier said than done though. Then they are led to a castle with the promise of finding something they lost...
1. Chapter 1

Disneyland Sea is awesome! Especially the Fantasmic show at night! It was totally worth sitting in an airplane for 13 hours to get to Japan.

Back on subject…Here is the sequel to Sora the Maelstrom. It should have shorter chapters since that game was shorter than the main games. Hopefully, that means chapters will get out more quickly.

I've made some additional changes to characters and the story. Some will be more obvious than others.

I still don't own any of this.

**Chapter Start**

Sora looked up at the stars. He wasn't sure how long they had been stuck in this strange realm, but it felt like it had been for a while. Sora would have to guess it was at least a few days.

Sora glanced at the group. The others were all sleeping while Sora kept a look out. Donald and Goofy were all spread out and snoring lightly. Aladdin hadn't moved at all since he'd curled up on the ground a couple of hours ago and hadn't made any noises since then either. Being around them 24/7 for that length of time was a bit…trying, but it was also…nice.

Sora sighed and went back to staring at the stars. He wished there was some clue as to where to go from there. Yeah, they'd managed to defeat Ansem and the Heartless, but had that restored the worlds? Even if it had, how were they going to get back to these worlds and go home?

Sora jumped to his feet to look around. They had been following Pluto, but had somehow managed to lose him. Now, they were at a crossroads, literally. The path had three possible choices for them, and they weren't sure which would be the best to choose. They'd eventually decided to sleep on it for the moment.

As Sora was thinking about his life, he saw something move out of the corner of his eyes. Sora turned to get a better look, fully expecting it to be a stray leaf. He was dead wrong. It was a person in a black hooded cloak that disguised every feature.

Sora gasped and sent a Firaga at the figure, which disappeared before the spell could impact. Sora frowned. That was some form of teleportation…

"Ahead lies something you hold dear…" Sora spun around to see the figure standing on the path directly behind him. Then suddenly it was even further away from him than it was a second ago. "However, in order to claim it, you must lose something that is dear to you." And then the figure was gone.

Sora immediately started waking up the rest of the group. "Guys! Wake up! Something happened!"

"Huh?"

"Whuzzat?"

"Bleh…"

"There was someone else here!" That got their attention. "They were wearing a black cloak so I could make out the gender. Whoever it was had a teleporting ability though so we need to be on guard."

The four immediately got in a back-to-back formation with their weapons at the ready. After nothing happened for a few minutes, Aladdin broke the silence. "Did…he want anything?"

Sora frowned. "I dunno. He said something I hold dear is ahead but that I would have to lose something dear. I don't know what he meant so I'm considering it a threat for now."

"But what if there are other people where he came from?" Goofy had a point there so they reluctantly set out on the path the cloaked person had gone down.

5 minutes later, they were in front of a topsy turvy castle. "How could we not see this from where we were?" asked Donald. No one could come up with a response to that except for some shrugs. "Your scan thing hasn't been working at all!"

Sora glowered. "This place is strange. I can't sense anything, even if it's right in front of me!"

"Hm…" Aladdin carefully opened the door and looked around. "No one's there. Come on." Then he slipped in.

Not being the kind of people who would abandon a friend to the wolves, they followed Aladdin in.

"You sure we should just barge in like this?" asked Goofy, looking around. The room was completely white with some flower statues on pedestals.

Donald huffed. "We have to if we're gonna find the king…"

Goofy gasped and started looking around. "The king? ! King Mickey's here?"

Donald shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Something told me he'd be here, that's all."

Goofy lit up. "Really? !" He turned thoughtful. "But…now that you mention it, I was thinkin' the same thing."

"So was I," said Aladdin. "Which is weird since I know where everyone I care about is…Except for maybe Genie."

Sora made a face. "I took one look at this castle, and I just knew they were here…I know I said I'd try to listen to my heart more, but this just smells funny."

Jiminy hopped onto Sora's shoulder. "I agree. This can't be a coincidence"

Donald gave Jiminy a surprised look. "Why Jiminy? Don't tell me that-"

"I felt it too!"

"Gawrsh, maybe it's contagious," suggested Goofy.

"Or maybe something funny's going on," muttered Sora.

Donald nodded in agreement. "We should check it out."

"Okay." Aladdin started walking forward.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Donald.

Aladdin gave them a confused look. "To check it out. What else?"

Sora chuckled. "We won't be able to check it out if we don't move forward." He moved forward so that he was standing next to Aladdin. "What's the matter, scared?"

Donald spluttered for a moment. "D-Don't be ridiculous! Come on Goofy!" He started walking forward.

Goofy shrugged. "Okay, but we should shut the door behind us." As Goofy turned to close the door, the hairs on the back of Sora's neck stood on end and Sora spun, summoning his Keyblade.

The cloaked figure that had been at the crossroads was behind them. "Who're you?"

"It must be a Heartless!" said Donald. He whipped out his staff and pointed it at the figure. "Let's see how it handles my magic! Thunder!" Nothing happened. "Huh? That's odd. Thunder! Thunder!" Nothing happened. "Um, Fire! Blizzard!" Still nothing, and wasn't that a scary thought. "Why isn't my magic working?"

The figure started talking. "I should think it's obvious. The moment you set foot in this castle, you forgot every spell and ability you knew…though the forgetting does not end there."

Sora's eyes widened in horror at the thought of forgetting anything that had happened recently. "What? !"

The figure nodded. "In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find. That is the way of things in Castle Oblivion."

Sora frowned. "Castle Oblivion?" That certainly sounded foreboding. "What do you mean by 'to find is to lose and to lose is to find?'"

"Here you will meet people you know. People you miss."

"There's lots of-Wait a minute. You mean Riku! He's here? !"

The figure chuckled. "Do you want to find him? If you do…" The figure ran towards Sora. Sora slashed at the figure, but the figure went right through him and the Keyblade.

"How'd he do that?" asked Aladdin.

Sora spun around, he felt noticeably different. "What did you do? !"

"I sampled your memories. And from them, I made this." The figure held up something blue and rectangular with spikes on the top. "This is the key to reuniting with those you hold dear." The figure threw it at Sora, who caught it.

"What is this?" The back was blue with a stylized heart on it, and the other side had a picture of Traverse Town on it. It felt a pit like paper or cardboard. "A card?"

"A promise," corrected the figure. "Use that card and press on. You will find your friend."

"How do you expect me to do that?"

"Hold the card before you. The door will open, and beyond it a new world."

Sora frowned and held up the card towards a pair of double doors at the other end of the hall. The card and doors flashed for a moment, and the card disappeared.

The figure nodded. "Yes, go, Sora. To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose…" instructed the figure as it faded away.

The group paused. "So, should we listen to her?" asked Aladdin

Donald raised an eyebrow. "Her?"

Aladdin shrugged. "It sounded like a woman…"

"I don't like the idea of losing any memories though," said Sora. He'd heard about what mako poisoning was like, and this sounded disturbingly similar. Not to mention his more recent memories… "This could be a problem."

"It could be a good thing though," pointed out Aladdin.

"Yeah, his majesty might be here," pointed out Goofy.

And Riku might be here too. Sora sighed. "We won't be able to turn back." The others' expressions didn't waver. "Fine then…Let's go." Sora lead the way to the doors.

To his shock, they ended up in Traverse Town…and Sora was back in his Tsviet uniform for some reason. "Impossible…" Then Sora realized something much more important. "Donald? Goofy? Aladdin?" They were gone. "Jiminy!"

The cricket jumped onto Sora's shoulder. "I'm right here!"

Well, at least someone was still there. "What about the rest? And how are we in Traverse Town?"

"It isn't reality that you see." Sora spun. It was the cloaked figure from before. Sora summoned his Keyblade. "This town is an illusion conceived by your memories ingrained in that card."

"Forget about that! Where are Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin? ! What did you do to them? ! I swear if they're hurt in any way-"

"They are unharmed, but they are at the mercy of the cards now."

That did it. Sora saw red and rushed forward to attack the figure. Said figure dodged without any problems. _"What happened to my technique? I should be able to do this!"_ He felt so clumsy, but continued attacking the cloaked figure. The figure kept dodging.

"The laws of this castle require that your friends be transformed into cards." As if to prove the figure's point, a green card fell from the sky and started bouncing on the ground. Donald's picture was on one side. What the figure had just said ran through Sora's mind and he ran over to grab the card.

"Donald? Can you hear me?" The card disappeared.

"Cards you pick up are added to the top of your deck. Use them, and your friends will come to your aid."

"Deck?" Sora suddenly felt a weight in one of his pockets. He reached in and found a deck of red cards shaped like the Traverse Town card and the Donald card. Sora looked through them and quickly pulled out the card with Donald's face on it. As Sora lifted it up, it disappeared and Donald briefly appeared. "Donald!" Donald cast Fire, but the figure dodged and Donald disappeared. "No!"

"The cards you use vanish, but they will reappear to aid you time and again."

"How? !"

The figure chuckled. "The cards are the hearts of your friends. Everything in this castle is ruled by cards. Whether an enemy or a door stands in your way, cards are the only way to proceed. But you mustn't forget your own strength."

"I don't care about that! How do I get them back? !"

"Every move you make causes a card to disappear. If you use up all your cards, you will be unable to act. But there is a solution. If you want that power back, you must focus. Bid the cards return to you…and they will."

Sora willed Donald to return…and nothing happened. "Of course, that doesn't work with your friends' cards," continued the figure.

"Bitch!"

"Your friends will return to you on their own time. You're not the kind to control your friends after all."

Well, that was true. There was no way Sora would ever be able to control Donald. Instead, he tried to attack the figure again. The attacks were less clumsy and felt more like they were supposed to. However, after a couple of minutes, Sora suddenly found himself unable to attack. "What the-"

"Once you run out of cards, you will be powerless to attack."

Sora glanced at his hand where he'd kept hold of the deck. All of the cards had disappeared. Sora willed them to return…and they did. Still no Donald.

"The strength of your heart brought back the lost cards. You can recall spent cards at any time. You need only wish it. But each time you do, the cards will take longer to return." Sora frowned at that news and gave the figure a look. "The cards are by no means unlimited. Use them wisely. Anticipate the flow of battle and choose the most effective cards. You may use any card in your deck."

Sora went back to attacking the figure until he ran out of cards again.

"The four card types you use in battle are grouped into two wider categories. The first category includes attack cards, magic cards, and item cards. The second category consists entirely of enemy cards. To use cards from a different category just think about the other deck." The red deck was suddenly replaced by a single black card with a Shadow Heartless on it. Sora promptly threw it at the figure, activating it. "You can't use the two decks at the same time."

Sora switched back to the red deck, which had reappeared. He promptly started attacking again. When he ran out of cards again, the figure went back to lecturing him.

"Cards will empower you whether you are attacking or defending. But it is up to you to decide when to attack and when to defend. Do not forget it."

That was when Sora finished summoning the cards back again. Just as he finished, three green cards fell to the ground and transformed to the other three guys in the group. Sora put off attacking. "Are you all right? Where have you been? !"

"You tell us!" demanded Donald. "When you opened the door, there was this weird light…and the rest is a big blank."

Jiminy jumped onto Sora's shoulder with a huff. "Well, try to remember what happened. I need to keep my journal up to date."

Aladdin groaned. "I'm in those weird clothes again!" The three were back in the clothes they'd had when they'd traveled to The End of the World.

"The cards again?" wondered Sora.

"That is for you to ponder," said the figure. "Master the cards and make your way through the castle. From here on, you walk alone."

"You mean we can't go with him?" asked Goofy. "That's not fair!"

"Yeah, we've been with him for nearly the whole time!" agreed Aladdin.

"Sora can't do anything without our help!"

"Thanks a lot Donald…"

"That is the law of the castle. You have no choice."

Sora sighed. "Right, I should be able to survive on my own."

His friends looked at him worriedly. "You sure you'll be okay?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, don't worry. I can take care of myself. I'll be fine." _"It can't be as bad as DEEPGROUND."_

"The hero speaks boldly. Go, then. The rest of Castle Oblivion awaits. Walk the avenues of latent memory, and you shall meet someone dear to you." And then the cloaked figure disappeared…Along with Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin.

Sora and Jiminy both sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this…"

"Relax, Jiminy. I've been through worse. I just have to figure out how this card stuff works…"

"Good luck with that." As Jiminy finished speaking, a card appeared in front of Sora. It was yellow card with a hollow key symbol on it. "What is that?"

"Let me compare it to the other cards I have."

Sora took a moment to go through his pockets and found the two decks, a box with 'extras' written on it, and another box with 'synthesis' written on it. Since the yellow card was suddenly in the 'synthesis' box, Sora was going to assume it wasn't for fighting.

Next, Sora decided to explore the town. This was made a little difficult since there were some Shadow Heartless wandering around. Normally, Sora would barely give them a passing glance, but they were considerably…different from what he was used to. When Sora hit the first one with the Keyblade, the world blurred, and he was suddenly facing several Shadows with stars floating around their heads. After Sora had killed them all, he was thrown through another blur and was back where he'd been before, more or less.

What annoyed Sora was that he kept freezing up against the Heartless, which was ridiculous! He wasn't scared of Shadows! They could barely even hurt him. In fact, Sora never froze up in a fight…Except against Sephiroth, but that didn't count.

After clearing the place of Heartless, Sora realized something: He wasn't in Traverse Town. He was in a room designed to look like Traverse Town. Given, the cloaked figure said it was an illusion, but this…this was something else.

There were two doors. The first was the one Sora had entered through. The other one was locked and refused to be opened, even by the Keyblade. Sora huffed. "I thought this thing was supposed to open any lock…" Although, it was a strange lock.

There was a slot shaped like a card and above that, the outline of a card with the number '6' and an arrow pointing up on it. Struck by inspiration, Sora slapped one of his deck cards in the slot. Nothing happened. "Well, that's not working."

"What about the synthesis cards? Cards have been appearing in it as you've beaten Heartless."

Sora popped that box open and found Jiminy was right. He slapped a card that had a '7' on it in the slot. The door flashed and opened. "So, that's what those are for. Let's go."

The next room also had nothing but Heartless in it. Sora had a choice of two doors, and chose the one on the left. The next room was full of Heartless as well, but Sora found something potentially useful. One of the doors had a picture of the yellow card on it. Sora placed that in the slot, and walked through the door.

Sora looked around. There didn't seem to be any Heartless in this room. "Is this a dead end?"

Then three green cards fluttered down from the sky and turned into his friends. "Gah! Don't pop out of nowhere like that!"

Donald huffed. "It's not our fault. We don't know what's going on either."

"You sure you're okay?" asked Aladdin. "Your fighting seems really off, like you don't have the experience you had before."

"You sure you don't need us?" asked Goofy.

Sora sighed. "I think it's the way fights have to be done in this castle. Using the cards is tricky, and I think I'm using them like I'm supposed to. I just have to figure out why I keep freezing up when I try to use cards. After that, I'll be fine. Don't worry."

"Think like that, and you're as good as Heartless fodder."

He knew that voice. Sora spun around. "Leon!" Sure enough, the gunblader was walking over from…somewhere. "What're you doing in Castle Oblivion?"

Leon gave Sora a suspicious look. "Castle Oblivion? What are you talking about? This is Traverse Town. And how do you know my name? I've never seen any of you before in my life."

"Say what?"

"But you fought the Heartless with us!" protested Aladdin.

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't even know your names."

"You don't?" asked Goofy.

Leon just shrugged. "Sorry."

Sora huffed. "I don't believe it. How could you have forgotten about us?"

"Hey, I feel for you. But you've got the wrong guy." Leon shrugged. "Happens all the time. Don't take it so personally, Sora." Sora twitched, badly.

"You DO know his name!" crowed Donald, looking far more triumphant than he had any right to be.

Leon, for his part, looked more shocked than any of them had ever seen. "Now-Now hold on! Why do I know your name?"

Goofy turned to Aladdin. "You think Leon's just kidding around?"

Aladdin shrugged. "It's not a very funny joke."

"Who's kidding around, Goofy? You and Aladdin are the one…who…" Leon trailed off as he realized what he just said.

"Hey, you do remember our names!"

"I don't get it…What's happened to my memory?" Leon looked like he was about to have some kind of break down…And Sora thought he saw some smoke coming out of his ears.

"I dunno Leon. Maybe Aerith was onto something after all." Everyone turned as Yuffie walked over. "She said she sensed some uncanny kind of power and asked us to look into it. Well, we looked. And this is as uncanny as it gets. Maybe we should bring Sora and the others to Aerith."

"Yuffie…Do you recognize me?" asked Sora.

Yuffie grinned. "Nope! I know your name, and you know mine, but you're a total stranger to me. Strange yes, but convenient! We can skip the introductions!" Definitely Yuffie.

Leon rolled his eyes. "Well, gee, Yuffie. I guess all our problems are solved," he said sardonically.

"Oh, hush you." Yuffie smiled at Sora. "Anyways, I'm gonna run ahead and fill Aerith in." She turned back to Leon. "Leon, you give Sora and the others the grand tour. See ya later!" And then Yuffie ran off, seemingly disappearing into one of the walls. Sora's eyes bugged out.

"How-"

"Well, let's get on with it," interrupted Leon. He looked around before pointing at a Shadow. "There are some Heartless still wandering around so I'd better teach you how to protect yourself in battle."

"Will it keep me from freezing up?"

"Yeah, just attack that Heartless and dodge until I give you instructions."

Sora walked over and bopped it with the Keyblade before it could jump him.

After the blur, Sora found himself facing a single Shadow, which was oddly convenient. Everyone else had disappeared though.

Leon's voice drifted in from somewhere. "First off, if you hit the Heartless first, they'll be stunned during the first few seconds of the battle." Well, that explained the floating stars. "If the Heartless hits you while still in the field, you'll be the one stunned, so be careful." Then the Heartless snapped out of it and started trying to attack Sora, who started dodging. "Now, there are numbers printed on your cards. You see them?"

Sora pulled out his deck. "Yeah!"

"They range from 0 to 9. Higher numbers mean stronger cards. If you and your enemy both play a card at the same time, the higher card wins. Go on, try it out."

"How do I see what card it plays? !"

"It should appear near its feet." Sora briefly looked down and was surprised to see a card flash onto the ground right before it attacked. Sora dodged and went through his deck until he found a '9.' He attacked as he saw another card appear in front of the Shadow. The Heartless froze up as soon as Sora initiated his attack, allowing the attack to hit.

That had felt weird, but it certainly worked.

"See how it works? Playing a card higher than your opponent's and breaking through their defenses is called a 'card break.' Playing a lower card results in your attack being deflected. Even powerful cards can be deflected if the enemy's card is higher. Whoever is on the losing side of a break is left wide open to attacks. Don't let that person be you." Well, that explained why Sora kept freezing up…This had the potential to become incredibly annoying/dangerous.

"Cards with 0 as their value are special. No matter what card the enemy plays, you can break it with a zero card. But you have to wait until AFTER the enemy plays their card. If you play the zero card too soon, the enemy can break it with any card they play. In other words, it's the most powerful card if it comes last, and useless if it comes first."

To try this out, Sora looked for a '0' card and used it right after the Heartless used a card. It had the same result as using the '9.'

"Try to make the most of it. Card values also affect the cost of assembling a deck. Keep that in mind." Sora had no idea what that meant, but he made a note of it.

"Now, it's time to teach you how to stock cards. You don't have to use battle cards one at a time. You can also assemble three cards and use them all at once. This is called stocking cards. Stocking cards and using them in threes is much stronger than using cards individually. Go on, give it a try. Stock any three cards in your deck. Remember, you need three cards or it won't work."

Sora grabbed three random cards and tossed them into the air. He promptly threw the Keyblade at the Heartless so that it hit it once after he threw it and once on the way back to its wielder.

"Combo attacks aren't the only benefit of stocking cards. Choose your cards carefully and you can unleash special abilities called "sleights." Sleights come in all varieties, and each has its own unique card combination. You should try it out once you've collected more cards and learned a sleight or two. But keep one thing in mind. Every time you use a sleight, you lose the first card you picked for the sleight. You can't reload it. The lost card won't return until the end of the battle. Relying only on sleights will cause your cards to run out. That means trouble." Sora didn't need Leon to tell him that. Then the world blurred, and Sora found himself standing with the other four guys again. "Think you've got the hang of it Sora?"

Sora nodded. "More or less. I'll work out the wrinkles as I move along."

Leon nodded in understanding and then handed Sora two cards. "Here, I found this lying around. You take it." Sora examined them. One was a blue card with a lion on it, and the other was a yellow card with a hollow heart on it. "Remember what I told you and make good use of it."

Sora nodded. "I will."

"Good. Come on." Leon turned, startled walking, and disappeared into a wall.

"Hey!" Aladdin ran over to the wall. "How'd he do that?" Then he disappeared as well.

Sora glanced behind him and saw that Donald and Goofy had disappeared as well. Before he could even react to this, a force picked Sora up and threw him out of the room. He spun around, brandishing the Keyblade…and saw a wall with no door whatsoever. "What happened to the door? !"

Sora looked around. One of the other doors was open, so he'd been here before. That was weird. Sora decided that all he could do at this point was look around for the door that matched the second yellow card.

Sora spent the next several minutes trying to get used to the card system using what Leon had told him. He quickly realized how difficult and annoying it was.

"I hate this *censored* fucking *bleepity* card system!" Sora attacked the final Heartless, luckily using a card that had a high enough value to work. He was thrown back to the room, but was still so angry that he started attacking a nearby lamp post. Several red balls popped out. Sora stared, rage forgotten, as the balls bounced and disappeared into the air above Sora's head as '+5' appeared in the air above him.

"…This castle is crazy." Was there even a point to that?

After lots of frustration, stress venting, and bouncing red balls, Sora finally found the door that matched the door. Sora slapped the card into it, and walked through.

Aladdin, Goofy, and Donald did not reappear when Sora entered this room, but he did see Aerith. Sora walked over to her cautiously. "Aerith, please tell me you haven't forgotten me, too."

Aerith smiled sadly. "I don't know whether to say "nice to meet you" or "good to see you again." It feels like a little of both." Sora sighed. "I don't think I know you, but I still feel like you belong here."

"Yeah, exactly!" Yuffie and Leon suddenly came bounding in from the wall. "Like we've never met, but it still doesn't feel weird knowing your name."

"I'm never gonna get used to that," muttered Sora. "And I'm telling you, we HAVE met. We took on the Heartless." Yeah, they mostly left him on his own, but they did help against that one Behemoth so he considered them friends and comrades. "We were a team!"

Leon frowned in thought. "It feels like you're right…" Leon sighed and shook his head. "But I can't remember."

Sora tried to think of something to jog Leon's memory. "Do you remember what you told me in Hollow Bastion when I sealed the Keyhole? 'We may never meet again…'" He trailed off to let Leon finish.

"But we'll never forget each other."

"See? You do remember!"

Yuffie nodded. "He's right, Leon! I remember you saying that, too."

"I guess I can't write it off as a coincidence, then," admitted Leon.

"I don't think I have any memory of it…" said Aerith, briefly filling Sora with dread. "But somehow I still remember. Maybe Sora's heart is doing the remembering for us."

Sora blinked. "How would something like THAT work?" That wasn't how memories worked! He should know after all the lectures Kimihiro had given him.

Aerith shrugged in response to Sora's question. "We don't know you, Sora, but your heart is full of memories of us together. Those memories must resonate in our hearts, too. Maybe they tell us things we couldn't otherwise know."

Okay, that actually made sense when he thought about all the stuff he'd learned recently.

Leon raised an eyebrow, looking very uncomfortable. "So, you're saying that Sora's memories are affecting ours?"

Aerith just chuckled. "Sora's memories do seem to have a certain power."

Sora frowned in thought. "It's just like what that guy said then. This town is just an illusion…Something created by my memories."

That got some confused looks. "And…there's someone special to you in this town?" hazarded Aerith.

"How did you-Ah, right…" Sora had forgotten that Aerith was also an Ancient. "You're more sensitive when it comes to these things…Anyway, yeah. A friend of mine is somewhere in this town-I mean, Castle Oblivion."

They were looking even more confused now. "What's Castle Oblivion?" asked Yuffie. "There aren't any castles in Traverse Town."

Sora sweatdropped. He'd forgotten they weren't in the know. "Uh, not quite what I meant." Although… "It's so complicated and unbelievable that I'm not sure I can explain it adequately."

"Then don't," said Aerith. "I'm sure you still have your own questions, right?"

"Yeah…" He wasn't sure they'd be able to answer any of his questions though. "I haven't explored the whole place though. It wouldn't hurt to keep looking around."

"Then go have a walk around town," said Leon. "There are Heartless, but that shouldn't be a problem for you from what I've seen."

"Oh good, you know I can fight again."

Leon shrugged. "I can't say I remember, but I am starting to believe. It's better than nothing."

Sora closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and nodded. "Well, there's something to that as well." Then he opened his eyes, and they were gone. Sora stared. "Of course this had to happen." Then a yellow card appeared in front of him. This one had the Heartless crest on it. Sora looked around cautiously before grabbing it.

Once again, an invisible force grabbed Sora and tossed him out of the room. When Sora turned, the door was gone again. "The rooms the yellow cards create must disappear after I leave them…"

Sora sighed. That figured. The one place he could see people he knew, and it disappeared as soon as a conversation was over. Sora sighed and started looking for the appropriate door for the yellow card.

By the time Sora had found the appropriate door, he was starting to get annoyed. He had gotten slightly used to the rules of the castle, but it was still difficult. Plus, it was difficult to find his way around here. Sora slapped the card into the slot, and walked through the now open door.

Inside was someone that Sora hadn't seen yet: Cid. "Well, whaddaya know? It's Sora." Cid paused and scratched his head. "Wait, what am I saying? I don't know you. But you do LOOK like a Sora, what with the spiky hair and glowy clothes…" Cid crossed his arms with a huff. "Guess I just call 'em like I see 'em."

Sora sighed. "It's okay Cid. That's my name."

Cid grinned. "So you've heard of me! Well, I can't say I'm surprised."

"Yeah, yeah, can you help me out? A friend of mine's supposed to be in this…town. Have you seen anyone unusual lately?"

Cid frowned in thought. "Yer friends, huh?" He sighed. "Lately, all this town sees is Heartless. Can't even take two steps without getting' attacked." Cid spread his arms out. "This plaza's the worst. Word is we'll have a jumbo-sized Heartless on our hands when that bell rings. If you value your hide, you'll get out of here while the gettin's good." And Cid immediately turned and walked into a wall after that.

"Gawrsh, maybe he's right."

Sora jumped and spun around. "Don't do that!"

Aladdin winced. "Sorry! It's not like we have any control over when we appear!"

Sora sighed. This place was so crazy. "So, we haven't been kicked out of this room yet. What do you want to do?"

"Leave," said Donald.

"How come?" asked Aladdin.

"Cid said that a giant Heartless shows up when the bell rings! Weren't you listening?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, but Sora's taken on giant Heartless before. Why would this be any different?"

Sora groaned. "It's the rules in this castle. My focus has to be in too many places at once. It makes battles a lot more difficult than they usually are." He sighed. "Donald's probably right. It would be best to avoid any tough fights when we can."

And that was when the bell rang and the ground started to shake. Goofy's eyes widened and he pointed behind Sora. "Sora, look out!"

Sora spun around as the world shifted again. There was a giant suit of armor of armor across from him. "This again? !" The Guard Armor lashed out with one of its gauntlets, and Sora rolled to the side to dodge it. _"I am not going to be able to fight this like I did the Shadows and Soldiers earlier."_ Sora dodged out of the way of another claw swipe as he tried to think of something to do.

Sora pulled out the deck and looked at the top number. It was a five. Then he turned his attention to the Guard Armor. He continued to dodge the attacks while he kept an eye on the number of the card it was using. Eventually, it used a card that had a lower value than five.

Sora quickly threw out the card. The Guard Armor stumbled back. Sora quickly ran in and started hitting it until it was able to recover. Then he quickly retreated out of its attack range. _"That should work for now…"_ Sora glanced at the next card in the deck. It was a two. "Oh come on!"

Sora spent the rest of the fight using that strategy while grabbing his friends' cards and using them in stacks to stagger the Guard Armor. After around 15 minutes, Sora successfully destroyed the Guard Armor…Or at least he assumed he did. He was shifted back to the plaza and it was nowhere to be found at the very least.

Somehow, everyone was now in the plaza. Sora couldn't help but wonder how that had happened.

"So, your friend wasn't here?" asked Leon, as if a giant Heartless hadn't been present a split-second ago.

Sora sighed and shook his head. "No, I don't think I'll find him in this town. But he's somewhere in this castle. I know it."

Cid raised an eyebrow. "Castle?"

Yuffie nodded. "Turns out this whole town is in a castle."

"Hoo, that's rich!"

"He's probably right Cid," said Leon. "We may not understand what's going on, but Sora does. He can see that reality is bigger than just this world."

Sora sighed. "I wish I was that sure."

Leon put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "You'll be okay, Sora. No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it. I may not remember you, but I know you in my heart."

"Leon…"

Yuffie nodded in agreement. "Take care, Sora."

Cid scratched the back of his head. "I'm a little lost…but best of luck anyway."

"…Thanks." Then the Traverse Town residents turned and walked away.

"Does this mean we have to turn into cards again?" asked Aladdin.

Donald sighed. "Probably…"

As the group turned to leave the room, Sora heard someone call his name. He turned and saw Aerith walking back over to him. "Aerith? Something up?"

Aerith fidgeted nervously. "I don't have all the answers, but there's something I thought you should know. Your memories created this town, right?"

Sora nodded. "That was the impression I got."

"If that's true, then this town is just a figment of your mind…and so are we."

Sora blinked in surprise and thought for a second. "Actually, that would make sense. I really can't think of any way you guys could have gotten here. And that means…None of this is real."

Aerith nodded. "That's right. But you thought it was real. Sora…beware your memories. In the journey to come, you'll be faced with more illusions. Sometimes, the shadows of your memory will deceive you and try to lead you astray."

"Sounds sort of like mako poisoning," mused Sora. "I don't suppose you know what I'm supposed to do?"

Aerith shook her head. "I'm just another illusion, Sora. The truth is out of my reach."

Sora sighed. "Right, if you were created from my memories, you can't know anything I don't." He thought a moment. "So, I need to be careful about the illusions made from my memories."

Aerith nodded. "You mustn't let illusions distract you from what's truly important."

Sora nodded. "Gotcha."

"Sora!"

"Are you coming or not?"

Sora turned toward the others. "I'll be there in a minute." Then he turned back…and Aerith was gone. "Huh? Aerith?"

"What about her?" asked Donald.

"I was talking to her just now, but she just…disappeared." The others started shifting nervously. "What? What is it?"

"Aerith left with the others," said Goofy. "Remember?"

"She did?"

"Yeah," said Aladdin. "You were just standing around talking to yourself. We weren't really sure if we should interrupt you or not since you had a really serious look on your face."

"You didn't see her?" Sora frowned in thought. "I see. That must be what she was talking about…We should leave here as soon as possible. I'll explain what I found out to you as soon as we do."

And then they got kicked out of the room.

"…We're never gonna be able to leave that room on our own, are we?" Sora sighed and looked around. He saw something unfamiliar in this room. There was a crystal with a couple of lights in it at the top of a ladder next to an open door. Assumming he hadn't gone through that door before, Sora headed straight for it.

As soon, as Sora walked through the door, Sora was greeted with a blindingly white hallway. He also noticed that the rest of the group had returned. Before anyone could even open their mouths though, the figure in black reappeared. "Well, Sora? Did you enjoy meeting your memories?"

"It was nice seeing them again." That was actually true. "But why show me an illusion? What do you want?"

"That depends on what you have to give."

The group and the figure got ready to fight…and a lanky man with spiky red hair and a cloak identical to the mystery figure's appeared out of a portal of darkness. "Yo! What's up?"

Everyone facevaulted…Yes, even the other person in a coat.

The hooded figure got up and gave the redhead what was presumably a scalding look. "What do you want?"

The redhead shrugged. "I got bored, what with you hogging the hero. Thought I'd come by to see what's happening. You gonna fight?" He suddenly caught several blue cards thrown at him by the other cloaked figure.

"Perhaps YOU'D like to test him."

The redhead smirked. "Perhaps I would." The hooded figure disappeared as the redhead walked over to the center of the room. He grinned at Sora-tachi. "Looks like it's my show now, Keyblade master. My name is Axel." He tapped the side of his head. "Got it memorized?"

"Uh, yeah sure…Why do you have mako eyes?"

Axel shrugged. "You know how it is. You gotta work to eat."

"Or steal," interjected Aladdin.

Axel nodded in agreement. "That too. So, now that we all know each other…" In a burst of flames, Axel summoned a pair of round bladed weapons. He smirked at Sora. "Don't go dying on me!"

**Chapter end**

And that was the first chapter. Everyone's got their fancy clothes back, they've wondered into Castle Oblivion, and Axel…has mako eyes?

Well, it's Sora. Nothing's ever simple for him.

On a side note, there will likely be several references to mako and the effects it can have on people.

And now for the set of omakes I made for this story. I have a feeling you're really going to like them…Or at least get a giggle out of them."

**Omake: Chickenpox**

It started as a normal enough day for the Tsviets. They'd been woken up by Zakuro and Kyo's morning fight (Better than an alarm clock!), and Kimihiro had put together a delicious breakfast from who knows what. They were still adjusting to the move to Destiny Islands, but anything was better than DEEPGROUND so it was going along quite well.

It got weird in the afternoon. Kyo was trying to figure out how to hook up a TV while Chris just sat on a couch and stared at the TV, which still wasn't working. Then Sora walked in, saw Chris and walked over to her. "I'm itchy." Chris gave him a blank look. "I'm itchy all over and I keep itching no matter how much I scratch."

Chris, grabbed him and yanked his shirt off in a practiced move, revealing several spots on his chest. "It's chicken pox. Don't scratch."

"Chicken pox?" Kyo looked out from behind the TV. "What the hell? How can someone full of mako and Jenova cells get sick?"

Chris shrugged. "Mako enhances physical abilities, including the immune system, causing it to attack pathogens before any detrimental effects become noticeable. Some pathogens can last long enough to cause detrimental effects. It appears chicken pox is one of them."

"You mean we're not immune to that sort of crap?"

"No."

"Well, that sucks. You mean we have to take care of a sick kid?"

Sora pouted. "I can take care of myself…"

"To prevent possible infection and scarring he must not be permitted to scratch the sores."

Kyo groaned. "And I bet Kimihiro is gonna make a big deal about this. Just our luck. Could this day get any worse?"

That was when Rosso walked in. "Ah, there you are Christine. I am itchy and have spots. Do you have anything for that?" Kyo started banging his head against the wall. "Why is he doing that?"

"You have chicken pox. Don't scratch."

"But why is Kyo hitting his head?"

"I have chicken pox too," said Sora.

"I will go inform Kimihiro," said Chris. "Kyo, please prevent them from scratching their sores." Kyo ignored her and kept banging his head against the wall.

Roughly half an hour later, Chris returned with Kimihiro and some bags. Kyo had left by that time. Rosso gave the bags a suspicious look. "What are those for?"

"You have to tough out chicken pox," explained Kimihiro. "This has some things to help with the itching." He started pulling out stuff. "Cotton mittens." Rosso made a face. "Calamine lotion…Oatmeal."

"Oatmeal? How is Oatmeal going to help?"

"Oatmeal baths make you stop itching for a while."

Rosso gave Kimihiro a disbelieving look. "You want us to sit in a bathtub full of oatmeal?"

"Yes."

"I refuse."

Weiss overrode Rosso's decision and forced her to take the oatmeal bath on penalty of amputation. That wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't decided she should take the bath with Sora.

Given, they only had three bathrooms, so it was understandable. Anyway, they didn't have to worry about anything inappropriate. Rosso was a lesbian, and Sora was just too young to care about girls, naked or otherwise. No, what made it bad was that Sora got bored.

The result was shaving cream everywhere.

"I will not defend you from Nero's wrath."

Sora pouted. "But I'm so bored!" He sank up to his nose and blew bubbles out of his mouth.

"Trust me. I'm not enjoying this anymore than you are."

Then Ash walked through the door…Literally. He blinked. "Am I interrupting something?"

Rosso leapt at him and punched him back through the door…Only this time the door broke. "That's it!" Rosso grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body. "I don't care if it will help, I'm leaving!" Then she stormed out through the hole in the door, making sure to stomp on Ash on the way out.

"Me too!" Sora jumped out of tub and ran out of the room, buck naked.

Ash groaned. "I'm so confused…"


	2. Chapter 2

And here's chapter 2. I haven't been updating much because I have a sort of part time job/volunteering thing now, and my muse has been a little overactive concerning plot ideas. Maybe I'll publish another story that deals with these ideas. It seems like authors with overactive imaginations do that sort of thing on a regular basis.

Anyway, there's not too much to say about this chapter. The group figures out a couple of important things and have some fights.

I still don't own anything. I just had an idea and decided to see where it took me.

**Chapter Start**

Sora ran forward slashing at Axel. Axel grinned and deflected it with his chakram, knocking Sora back. Sora frowned as he noticed flames licking Axel's chakram. _"Does he specialize in Fire magic? Just my luck. I don't even have any magic I can use!"_

Sora rushed forward, feinting to the side, and lashing out again. Axel blocked it with a grin. "Not bad! You're getting the hang of the cards already!"

Sora growled and started to activate his limit. Then he realized something very important. "Why isn't my limit activating? !"

"Oh, you can't use those in the castle," said Axel, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then he threw both his blazing chakrams at Sora. Sora dodged, planning to rush Axel again, but the redhead summoned his chakrams back to him.

Sora saw a green card out of the corner of his eye. He ran over and grabbed it before Axel could pull anything. _"Maybe I can try that stacking thing Leon told me about…"_ Sora whipped out 3 cards and instinctively threw his Keyblade at Axel. When the redhead held up his chakrams to block the attack, the Keyblade broke right through them and nailed Axel in the face.

Instead of getting knocked down, Axel seemed unaffected other than some blood running from his nose. He laughed. "Now that's more like it!" The he rushed in, slashing at Sora in quick succession. Sora dodged until he saw an opening and stabbed forward. He ended up freezing long enough for Axel to score a significant hit against him. Sora immediately jumped back. Axel must have countered with a card that had a higher value.

Sora paused as another flash of green caught his eye. He ran over to grab it, dodging as Axel threw his chakrams at him. Sora grabbed the bouncing card and stuffed it into his pocket. Then Sora did another stacking and ran forward to attack Axel.

This time, Sora clearly had the advantage. His attack broke through Axel's attempts to block, which meant Sora was able to do a lot of damage since he put a lot of strength into his attacks.

Axel jumped back with a wince, holding his ribs. "Man, you hit like a SOLDIER."

"Of course I do." Sora caught a green card that happened to be falling next to him. Then he summoned the other two green cards into his hand and activated the sleight.

Axel was hit from behind by a Blizzard spell courtesy of Donald. When he spun around to face Donald, Goofy and Aladdin double-teamed him from the left and right, launching him into the air. Then Sora leapt above Axel and brought his Keyblade down with all the strength he could muster, sending Axel back towards the ground, where his landing kicked up a large dust cloud. When it cleared, Axel was nowhere to be seen, but the blue cards he'd gotten before were there.

Sora picked up the cards from where Axel had dropped them and showed them to the others. "More cards?" asked Goofy.

"They look kind of like the card that made Traverse Town," noted Jiminy.

"So they must create more worlds that we've been to…" mused Sora. "We must need them to continue on."

"That's right!" Axel suddenly reappeared.

"Axel!"

"You're not dead?"

Axel smirked. "After an introduction like that, you don't think I'd just give up the ghost, do ya?"

Sora glared. "You were testing me."

"That is correct, and congratulations! You passed! You're ready to take on Castle Oblivion. Follow your memories, trust what you remember, seek what you forget, and you will find someone _very_ special."

"You mean Riku and the King?" asked Goofy.

Axel shrugged. "How should I know? I don't know who's most important to you. Do you? Our most precious memories lie deep in our hearts, out of reach, but you can find yours, Sora."

Sora frowned. How do you find a memory? It doesn't have solid form! "…How?"

Axel smirked. "The light within the darkness. You've lost sight of it, Sora. You've forgotten forgetting."

"That doesn't even make sense!" squawked Donald

Axel rolled his eyes. "What? You want a hint?"

Aladdin glanced at Sora, who was giving Axel a rather nasty glare. "I think Sora would rather kill you than ask for your help."

"Aladdin's right. If you get in my way…"

"We won't let him!" Donald insisted.

Axel grinned. "That's my kind of answer! Just what I'd expect from the Keyblade master. But be careful…When your sleeping memories awaken, you may no longer be you." And then he disappeared.

"That sure was strange," said Goofy.

Sora frowned in thought. "That means there are other people here, and I bet there's more than just those two."

"Hey…What was that talk about illusions?" asked Aladdin. "What were you guys talking about?"

Sora sighed. "That Traverse Town…Wasn't real."

"Huh?"

"Aerith came back to talk to me right before we left. She said that Traverse Town and all the people in it were illusions created from my memories."

Goofy scratched his head. "Then how come they didn't recognize you?"

"I don't know…Maybe it was focusing on the memory of when I first met them or something."

"Isn't that good?" asked Aladdin. "That means that they're not here and haven't forgotten us."

Sora paused. "Okay, you gotta point there."

"What Axel's said is bothering me," added Jiminy. "What could he have meant by 'you may no longer be you'?"

Sora shrugged. "Beats me. I can't think of anything that would make me change into someone else."

Jiminy nodded with a small sigh. "I know, I know. Still, it always pays to be careful."

"Yeah, just about anything could happen here in Castle Oblibbity…uh, Oblostemy…" Goofy struggled with the name of the castle.

Donald rolled his eyes. "Oblivion!"

"Right, what you said."

Aladdin shrugged. "We'll be fine as long as we don't get separated…Can that even happen here?"

"Probably not while your cards," said Sora. "I guess it could happen between floors though. We'll have to be careful that doesn't happen."

Goofy nodded. "Yeah, I don't want us to get separated again like in that other castle."

Everyone gave Goofy a confused look. "When was that?" asked Aladdin

"Huh? You don't remember? It was the castle with all the contraptions. Gawrsh, what was it called again? Holla…Holler…I forget."

Donald frowned. "I don't remember a castle like that."

"Neither do I," agreed Sora.

Goofy looked confused. "But I'm sure there was another castle…"

"You sure you didn't make it up?" asked Aladdin.

"I don't think so…"

"We'll worry about that later," said Sora. "For now, we should choose which of these cards to use." He spread them out and looked at them. "Any requests?"

Donald and Goofy shook their heads, but Aladdin's eyes widened. "Hey! That's Agrabah!"

"It is?" Now that Sora thought about it, there had been a large palace in Agrabah, hadn't there? "You want to go there? It's not real, but…"

Aladdin nodded. "I know none of it will be real, but it would be nice to see it again."

Sora nodded. "Okay, Agrabah it is then." Sora picked the card out and walked over to the pair of doors before looking back at his friends. "I don't know if this will be like Traverse Town or not, so be prepared for anything, okay?" The others nodded. "Okay…" Sora took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." With that, Sora put the card on the doors. As the doors opened, Sora walked through into the bright light.

When the light cleared, they discovered some bad things. For some reason, Aladdin had been separated from the rest of group and was on the other side of the room. He was also surrounded by Heartless. He swiped at one with his scimitar, only to find that it was completely ineffective. "A little help? !"

"On it!" Sora ran forward. As the Heartless turned their attention to him, the world blurred, and the other three guys disappeared again. Sora dodged the sword strike from the Heartless and made sure it was safe to counter. Unfortunately, this battle was more difficult since there were more enemies, the enemies had swords, and they did a good job of looking out for each other. Sora was eventually able to beat all of them, and he was returned to the real world with the rest of the group.

Aladdin let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, I thought I was done for." A familiar monkey jumped out of Aladdin's shirt and onto his shoulder. "Abu? ! Man am I glad to see you!" Abu gave him a confused look. Then more Heartless appeared and Abu hid back in Aladdin's shirt.

"Hold on!" Sora took care of that batch of Heartless, only for yet more to appear. "They just keep coming! I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up!"

Aladdin suddenly made a face. "What's in my pocket?" Aladdin reached in and pulled out an old brass lamp. "I don't remember this being there before." As Aladdin said this, his thumb rubbed along the side of the lamp.

A bright burst of smoke exploded out of the spout of the lamp, shortly followed by a blue man with a smoke tail instead of legs. A look of recognition appeared on Aladdin's face. "I wish for you to get rid of these Heartless!"

"Did someone say "wish?" Stand back kids, Genie of the lamp coming through!" The blue man started blasting the Heartless with various types of magic. "There ain't nothin' I can't make right as rain! Well, if we had rain. But enough dry jokes! One Heartless disappearing act coming right up!" And that was the end of the Heartless, no more popped up.

Donald huffed. "Why didn't you do that before?"

Aladdin looked really confused. "I didn't-I forgot about the lamp! And Genie!"

"Really? I know it takes some getting used to, but I think I'm pretty unforgettable," said Genie. He waved a finger at Aladdin, like he was admonishing a naughty child. "I'm strictly limited to three wishes per master. And no wishing for more wishes!" And then he disappeared back into the lamp.

"Well, we've got two wishes left then," said Goofy, seemingly unbothered by what had just happened.

Aladdin was starting to freak out. "How could I forget about Genie or the lamp? ! What if I forgot about Jasmine? !"

"You just said her name," pointed out Donald.

Aladdin paused. "Oh, right."

"Who's Jasmine?" asked Goofy.

"Oh, come on. You know her she was one of those…princesses that Riku kidnapped. Can't remember why he did that though…"

Sora nodded. "So, you remember Jasmine and Abu, but not Genie or the lamp?"

"Well, I remember them now."

"Do you remember what we did while we were here?" continued Sora.

Aladdin frowned in thought for a moment before sighing. "Well, you found me after I found the lamp…Heartless were invading Agrabah…"

"That was happening everywhere we went," said Donald.

"And I was really worried about Jasmine." Aladdin paused. "There was someone that was causing trouble for us, but I can't remember who." It looked like he was about to start panicking again.

Sora put a hand on Aladdin's shoulder in an attempt to calm him. "Hey, relax. You remember the important stuff. That's what matters." Sora thought for a moment. "It must have something to do with the castle. We just have to figure out what caused it."

"What if we're forgetting things too though?" asked Goofy.

Donald nodded in agreement. "Yeah! We need our memories!"

Sora frowned. "I don't think this is the best place to talk about it. We're only together in certain rooms, and usually it's only long enough to get some sort of information from the locals. We'll need to wait until we get through this floor before we can figure this out."

"But where are we supposed to go?" asked Aladdin.

"Follow your instincts. Even if you don't remember what happened, your body should. And if this is like the last floor, those yellow cards will allow us to find the right place."

Aladdin took a deep breath. "Right. That's right. We're not going anywhere, and none of this is real…We can take our time." Aladdin frowned. "I still feel worried about Jasmine though…"

"Where do you wanna go?" asked Goofy.

Aladdin shrugged. "I dunno. I guess the palace."

"Then we'll try heading in that direction," said Sora. "If we manage to find our way there, we'll see if it jogs your memory."

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a plan. Let's get going."

That seemed to be a signal because everyone except for Sora disappeared just then. Sora sighed, looked around at the door choices, and headed towards one of them.

After a few battles, Sora realized he was getting some different synthesis cards from last time. Since there wasn't anything else to do between the 'Rooms of Significance' as he'd taken to calling them, Sora decided to try one out.

Sora frowned and looked around the new room. There were no Heartless at all. There was just a crystal with a couple of lights in it in the middle of the room. Now that he thought about it, hadn't he seen one of those right before he left Traverse Town. Sora tapped it experimentally. A small cut his finger instantly healed. Sora blinked. "I'll have to remember to hold on to those cards for emergencies."

Shortly after that, Sora found the first Room of Significance and slipped the card into the slot.

The palace wasn't in the room, but it was significantly closer. "Okay, let's see if this is jogging any memories."

Aladdin pulled out the lamp as Genie popped out. "Well, I found this lamp…in a talking cave…And I really needed to get to the palace…There were so many Heartless though, I nearly got killed."

Sora frowned. "There wasn't anyone to help you?"

Aladdin shook his head. "Just Abu, and he's not much help in that kind of situation."

Genie nodded. "I know how you feel, Master. I've been delivering happiness for 2,000 years, and what help do I get? I keep dreamin' someone will wish me outta this gig…But go figure the odds on that."

Aladdin gave Genie an odd look and glanced at the lamp. "Well, how 'bout I use my third wish to set you free?"

Genie got a gobsmacked look on his face. "Doth my pointy ears deceive me? Master, you'd do that for me? You're not just pullin' my topknot now, are you?"

"I promise Genie. Anyway, there's only one thing I really want."

"Then we'll just have to DO something about that, Al! Can I call you Al?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, that seems…right."

"So, what'll it be? Fame? Fortune? A herd of luxury camels to call your very own?"

"Well, it's Jasmine. I really like her, but since she's the princess, and I'm a…street rat, it's hard for me to get to see her." Aladdin frowned. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's why I went looking for this lamp, anyway."

Sora crossed his arms. "So, the best wish would be to see Jasmine anytime you want, huh?"

"Well, I've got just the package for you! You'll not only meet the lady, you'll go in style…as PRINCE ALI! How d'ya like the sound of that, Al?" asked Genie.

Aladdin tried to picture it and laughed. "Me, a prince? Could you really do that?"

"In an Agrabah minute!"

Aladdin thought for a moment. He didn't recall using a wish to become a prince before. Then again, he couldn't recall most of what happened in Agrabah except Jasmine went missing at some point. "I guess we'll see how things turn out. I'll save that wish for now." He turned to Sora. "Let's hurry to the palace."

And then Sora was back out of the room all by himself. He sighed and started looking for the next Door of Significance.

It actually was only a couple of rooms over, much to Sora's relief. Inside was an unconscious, pretty, young woman surrounded by Heartless. Aladdin's eyes widened in horror. "Jasmine!"

It was obvious that they wouldn't be able to reach her in time. Before Sora could decide if it was worth an attack that would possibly hurt/kill Jasmine, Aladdin had whipped out the lamp. "Genie! I wish for you to save Jasmine!"

Genie appeared. "Can do! CHAAARGE!" And he promptly pummeled the Heartless without even touching a hair on Jasmine's head.

"Jasmine!" Aladdin still ran over to check on her. He let out a sigh of relief when she saw she was all right.

"We're lucky!" said Goofy, who'd come over at a slightly slower pace. "She fainted, but it looks like she's okay."

"You know this isn't the real Jasmine, right?" whispered Sora.

"I know. It's just…" Aladdin sighed. "I can't stand to see anything happen to Jasmine, even if it's not the real Jasmine."

Then even more Heartless appeared. "Not again…" groaned Aladdin. "Guys, I don't want to waste my last wish on this."

Sora nodded with a grin. "No problem. Just leave the wish granting to us!"

Sora blocked an attack as the world blurred. Then caught the blade and disarmed the Heartless, allowing him to disarm it. Then he used a Fire on the one directly behind it.

Yet another sword-wielding Heartless ran forward at Sora. Sora stacked his cards and let loose an attack that went through that Heartless and any directly behind it.

Sora turned to attack another Heartless, but found himself freezing up again. The Heartless took advantage of this to dog pile him. Sora promptly used a stack to perform a flaming spin move, which got rid of the rest of them, and caused the world to change back to normal.

Aladdin let out a sigh of relief as everyone reappeared. "Thanks Sora. I want save my last wish-" He suddenly froze up.

"Something wrong?" asked Donald.

"The lamp's gone!"

"Hmm, it seems my plans have gone amiss." Everyone turned to see a tall man with a twisted bead and red and black robes with a matching turbin. "I was certain you'd waste your last wish…what with poor Jasmine in distress and the Heartless to deal with."

Aladdin stared in confusion before a look of recognition flashed across his face. "Jafar!"

Jafar (Sora was assuming that was his name.) held up the lamp with a grin. "But no matter. At last the lamp is mine to command!"

"Okay…" Aladdin looked confused again. "Why do you want the lamp so badly? I would've lent it to you."

Jafar gave Aladdin a sneer. "Don't think you can fool me boy! You were going to use the lamp to win Jasmine! But we can't have that, now can we? You see, I am the one Jasmine will marry!"

Sora made a face. "That's disgusting!"

Jafar ignored Sora's accurate statement. "If I marry Princess Jasmine, nothing can stop me from becoming sultan of Agrabah! You're nothing more than a pawn in my game, street rat!"

"Okay, this is starting to seem really familiar," muttered Aladdin.

Jafar held the lamp aloft. "Genie! My first wish! Deliver Jasmine to me!"

Genie's head hung as he grabbed Jasmine and floated over to Jafar. Aladdin's eyes widened. "Genie! What are you doing?"

"Sorry, Al. My hands are tied on this one. I gotta obey whoever has his mitts on the lamp." Genie's posture indicated that he obviously wasn't enjoying this. Which meant that the enemy was Jafar.

"Precisely," confirmed Jafar. "Farewell, Aladdin…you fool!" Jafar waved his cobra staff, and the three disappeared in a burst of smoke.

Aladdin groaned. "Great, I lost Jasmine AND the lamp."

"Good thing they're not real," muttered Sora. Fortunately, Aladdin didn't hear him. "Hey, pull yourself together already! We beat Ansem, didn't we? We can save her without the lamp."

Aladdin nodded and took a few deep breaths. "Right. You're right. We can still save Jasmine. I don't think Genie will put any more effort into helping Jafar than he has too. We just have to worry about Jafar."

"He's still got two wishes though," said Donald. "We can't just walk up to him and expect to win…"

"I got an idea," said Aladdin. "Why don't we try what Jafar tried?"

Goofy tilted his head. "You mean try to get him to waste his wishes?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, listen." Aladdin quickly told the three his plan. "What do you think?"

Sora nodded. "Jafar probably doesn't know how long we've been working together, so he won't expect us to use a tactic like that."

"Now, we just have to find him," said Goofy.

"That might be tricky," said Sora. "He's probably in the last room, and we'll have to be careful to make sure he doesn't see us until we're in position. So be ready to move quickly and silently as soon as you appear, all right?"

Everyone nodded and then Sora was out of the room and all alone with only a new card to show that he'd just been somewhere else entirely. Sora quickly pocketed to card and hurried on his way.

Of course, something weird had to happen.

"Welcome to the shop, kupo!"

Sora blinked at the talking Moogle. He'd used a card with a Moogle on it since he'd been hoping it would be a simple room. It was. There were no heartless, just a Moogle. It was just standing in the middle of the room though, so Sora didn't see how he could be in a store. "What do you sell?"

"Card packs."

"Card packs?" Maybe it was like trading cards or something. If they were the cards that Sora had to use, they could be useful. "How much do they cost?"

"It depends. Cheapest is 100 moogle points."

"Moogle points?" Sora had munny, but moogle points? "What exactly are moogle points?"

"They're these red orbs you get when you check in boxes and stuff."

That brought up a memory from Traverse Town…Well, the illusionary one anyway. Sora promptly bashed everything that was breakable in the room and used the resulting moogle points to get a pack of cards. He made a mental note to break stuff whenever he had the chance.

After some more searching (and collecting of moogle points), Sora found the room that required the Key to Truth card to open.

As soon as they entered, Aladdin ducked behind a building. When it didn't seem like Jafar had reacted, Sora gave him a signal, and Aladdin started quietly sneaking off. The other three walked forward to where Jafar was keeping an eye on Jasmine. "Hey!"

Jafar turned and raised an eyebrow when he saw who was there, or, rather, who wasn't there. "What's this? Has Aladdin given up on his precious Jasmine already? Well, I'm not going to waste a wish on the likes of you three. I'll deal with you myself!"

Then Sora was in front of Jafar. _"Please let this work."_ Sora lashed out with the Keyblade, purposely making the strike less powerful than it normally would be. Jafar had to block it with his staff. That was Aladdin dropped down behind Jafar, making sure to make some noise. Jafar turned enough to see Aladdin rushing towards them. Unable to defend against both of the young men, he reacted instinctively.

"Genie! Seize him!"

"Sorry Al!" Genie appeared in front of Aladdin and grabbed him to keep him from getting near Jafar. Instead of being upset, Aladdin grinned.

"You fell for it!"

Jafar raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"He means you only have one wish now," explained Goofy.

"Go ahead, use it to win Jasmine's heart," said Sora, making a face at the thought. "You'll still have to deal with us!" Sora smirked. "And I was holding back just now." To prove it, he used his full strength to send Jafar's staff flying.

Jafar sneered. "So the street rat has some cunning, but, unfortunately, you can't see beyond the cheese. Your little ploy changes nothing! I can crush you once and for all AND make Jasmine my own! Genie! My last wish! Transform me into an all-powerful genie!"

Genie winced, covered his eyes, and shot a blast of magic at Jafar. Then the scene shifted into a room full of lava. Sora was the only one present and was facing a giant, genie Jafar. "Great…I have to fight a genie." At least it wasn't a real genie at least. That would make things a lot more difficult.

Now, how to go about doing this…Sora experimentally fired off a Fire at Jafar, but it didn't have any effect. Actually, Jafar didn't seem to have any aura. That wasn't surprising since he wasn't real, but the Guard Armor and Heartless had auras so they were real.

Then Sora noticed something he'd missed before. There was a red parrot flying around with a black lamp. The lamp had an aura to it. Sora ran over and snatched the lamp from the parrot. "Hey!" He tried tossing it into the lava, but there was a force field. Not one to be easily deterred, Sora grabbed it and ran around while whacking it with the Keyblade and dodging the parrot and Jafar's attacks.

Yeah, whoever came up with this fight didn't think it through all the way. The lamp eventually cracked and disappeared, along with Jafar, the parrot, and the room.

Sora let out a sigh of relief as he reappeared back in Agrabah. "Finally…"

Aladdin hurried over to Jasmine. "Jasmine's okay!" He picked up Genie's lamp, which was next to Jasmine. "And we've got the lamp back too!"

Donald let out a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over with."

Genie nodded and cracked his hands. "No kidding! Now, time for me to make a prince outta this guy! 'Course, I'd like to be free." He shrugged. "But like they always say, genies can't be choosers. You're probably miffed about that whole puppet-of-Jafar thing, anyway," he continued sheepishly. "Go on, Al. Wish for what's really in your heart. Be a prince. Get the girl."

Aladdin thought for a moment. He was sure this had already happened before. He couldn't remember what he'd wished for, but…He knew what he wanted to do. "Genie…I wish for your freedom!"

Genie's eyes widened. "But Al!"

Aladdin shook his head, cutting off his protest. "I don't want you to be trapped in the lamp or have a master like Jafar ever again. I want you to be free to make your own choices."

Genie's bracelets fell off and he got a pair of legs. He looked at his changes for a moment before breaking out into a grin. "Al, I'll never forget this! But what about Jasmine? What're you gonna do?"

Aladdin looked at Jasmine with a sad smile on his face. "Jasmine means everything to me. I want to show her the real me. If I just pretended to be something else, she'd be loving a lie. I don't want to do that to her. If she loves me, it'll be because of me, not because of what I am."

"That's the spirit!" chimed Donald.

Sora grinned. "Yeah, go for it."

"Thanks guys." Aladdin carefully put Jasmine back down. "Now, we need to find the ones you're looking for too."

Sora nodded. "Yeah…you sure you don't want to stay until Jasmine wakes up?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, I think it's better that way since she's…you know…" An illusion. Not the real thing.

"Well, if you guys are gonna be leaving…" Genie handed Sora a blue card with his picture on it. "Whenever you need me, just call. That okay with you, Al?"

Aladdin blinked but grinned and nodded. "Of course!"

Sora raised an eyebrow. This certainly didn't feel familiar. "Are you sure?"

Genie nodded. "Anytime at all. Hey, without you guys, I might never have been able to ditch that lamp! And I'd like to stay in contact with Al anyway."

Sora nodded. "Thanks a lot!" Genie was powerful. He'd be useful in battle.

"Well, guess that about wraps it up," said Aladdin. "Let's get out of here."

Then Sora was pushed out of the room again. He'd gotten used to this by now and found his way to the exit within a few minutes.

As soon as Sora left Agrabah, the rest of the group reappeared in the halls of Castle Oblivion. "Okay, we need to talk," said Sora. "Something is happening to our memories."

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, that was definitely how I met you guys, but I couldn't remember what happened. I had to sort of guess as we went along." He frowned. "I couldn't remember Genie at all until I saw him. Same with Jafar."

Donald frowned. "So…Aladdin forgot all of that?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure more than that stuff happened though. It's just…kind of a blur." He frowned. "It's kind of frustrating. I know there's more to how we met, but when I try to think of it…I can't get anything."

"I'm worried that it might not be just Aladdin who's forgetting," said Sora.

"Like that castle that I mentioned earlier," said Goofy. "I'm sure I didn't make it up. That was the castle where Sora used the Keyblade to free Kairi's heart. Then he disappeared for a while, remember?" Goofy got a sad look on his face. "I'll never forget how worried I was."

"Oh yeah! When I turned into a Heartless!" How could Sora forget that? Near death experiences are not something you forget. There was just one problem. "That happened in…a castle?" Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember where it happened.

"Yeah, it was in a castle," agreed Aladdin. "I think we…got separated or something." Aladdin crossed his arms. Can't remember how that happened though."

Donald scoffed. "You forgot? Well, I remember it perfectly."

Sora frowned. "Oh yeah? What was the castle called then?"

"Easy! It was…" Donald trailed off. After a moment, he huffed in annoyance, admitted defeat, and asked for help. "Hey, Jiminy. You wrote down everything that happened in your journal, right?"

Jiminy jumped up onto Sora's shoulder. "Every letter! I finished off the first volume right before we got to this castle."

"How many volumes are there?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, just one, but I plan on writing the next one as soon as we get out of this castle." Jiminy jumped back down into Sora's pocket. "Let's see if I can find the old book…Ah, here it is!" Jiminy jumped back onto Sora's shoulder. "Let's have a look…" Everyone leaned forward to see what Jiminy had written. Instead, Jiminy let out a loud gasp. "Th-This isn't possible! All the entries have vanished! Every page, blank!"

"What? !"

"How could this happen? I take such good care of my journals! All that hard work, gone…"

Sora awkwardly tried to pat Jiminy on the shoulder. "What sort of castle is this?"

Donald crossed his arms. "Something funny's going on…How could everything Jiminy wrote down vanish like that?"

"Journals are memories that you write down…" mused Sora, the beginnings of a horrible idea in his head. "Aladdin can't remember how we met. Goofy said we've been to some other castle that none of us remember. Maybe…Maybe we don't remember because those memories are gone."

"Gone? Don't be ridiculous!" squawked Donald.

"Why would our memories just disappear?" asked Aladdin.

"Wait! Remember what that person in the black hood said?" pointed out Jiminy. " 'In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find.' He was talking about memories!"

Sora frowned in thought. "So if we keep going, we'll lose our memories…" Sora winced as he thought about some of the mako poisoning cases he'd seen back in DEEPGROUND. "No wonder they call it Castle Oblivion."

"So…the higher we go, the more we forget?" asked Donald. He frowned. "What if we forget everything and can't get it back? Maybe we should turn back."

"Don't worry!" said Goofy. "We might forget where we've been or what we saw, but we won't forget our friends."

"Hey, he's got a point," said Aladdin. "I didn't forget Abu or Jasmine."

"And Sora, when you turned into a Heartless, did you forget about us?"

Sora frowned. "Of course not! I'd never forget you!"

"Well, see, there ya go! No matter what happens, you won't forget your friends."

"What about Genie?" pointed out Donald. "Aladdin didn't remember him at first."

"Oh yeah…"

"He recognized Genie as soon as he saw him though," reasoned Sora. "Maybe he just needed his memory jogged. He did hit his head a couple of times after all."

"Hey!"

Sora grinned. "Just kidding!"

Aladdin rolled his eyes. "I didn't get knocked around that much."

"Seriously though, I'm sure there's nothing to be worried about," said Sora. "We still have our body memories."

The rest of the group stared at Sora. "Our what?"

"It's something Kimihiro told me about before. There are two types of memory. Memories of the heart and memories of the body. It sounds like the memories we're losing are the memories of the heart, which makes sense considering the Heartless and Keyblade and everything." The others nodded in agreement. "The memories of the body are different. We can't really recall these memories. I'm not sure how to describe them."

"I guess you could sort of call them instinct…I think they can be passed down from parent to child too. We fear night and the dark because that was when night time predators that we can't see hunted our ancestors. It's probably why people prefer the light to the darkness. It also is sort of a muscle memory. I can fight while barely thinking about my moves most of the time." He couldn't do that in Castle Oblivion though due to the cards. It was probably why he was finding the fights so frustrating.

"Is that why you told me to follow my instincts?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah, the memories of your body are generally really accurate and can't be erased. It's sort of like a computer back-up, I guess."

"I don't know what that means."

"Uh…Like Jiminy keeping two copies of his journal in case he loses one. Then something comes along that your heart forgot, but your body didn't. You know you know the thing, even if you can't remember it. You may even manage to remember something you thought you'd forgotten. Like how you remembered Genie when you saw him again." Sora sighed and scratched the back of his head in an uncharacteristic show of worry. "At least, that's what it sounded like when Kimihiro was explaining to me. It was a really complicated and confusing subject. I guess the main thing is you never really forget something even if you think you do. It works for Kimihiro at least. He usually can't remember anything that happened the day before…."

Well, that was disturbing, but if one person could function without most of their memories…Donald crossed his arms for a moment before nodding. "Okay, you've gotta point. I guess there's nothing to be scared of after all. So let's go!"

Donald started to walk towards the stairs. Sora grinned as he remembered something else. "Hey, Donald…Back when I was a Heartless, who was the one who clobbered me, hmm?"

Donald stumbled and nearly fell before turning back around. "THAT'S what you should be forgetting!"

The rest of the group burst out laughing at the comment.

Things may be looking bleak, but the tension had been broken. They'd decided to continue forward.

Meanwhile, a young girl continued drawing in her sketchbook.

**Chapter End**

I was originally going to go through the worlds in the same order as Sora did in my game, but then I realized that Aladdin would want to return to his home world. This caused them to figure out something was up a bit more quickly than in canon.

As for why Aladdin didn't want to wait for Jasmine to wake up, he didn't want to replace any of his memories of real Jasmine with fake Jasmine.

Seriously, why didn't Sora just grab the lamp from Iago. Given, that only occurred to me just now, but it couldn't have been that hard to get a lamp from a bird, even if it's smart enough to think and act like a human.

Spoiler Alert for those who have not read Xxxholic! The talk about memories of the heart and memories of the body is taken from Xxxholic! Kimihiro really is unable to remember most things, and can't remember anyone he met outside of the shop except for Doumeki and Himawari. Mokona told him about the different types of memories to cheer him up. I tried to sort of explain the way the memories worked the way I imagined Kimihiro would try to explain it to a child, but memories are always a complicated subject, even in real world psychology…Especially in real world psychology. If anyone thinks they have a better way of explaining how it works, feel free to let me know.

**Omake: The Memories of Kimihiro Watanuki**

"Kimihiro, can you help me with my homework?"

Kimihiro put down his knife with a smile. "If I can, I will. What's the problem?"

"You read that book about the ghosts and the windmill, right? There's some questions about it, and I'm not sure what they're asking."

Kimihiro's face fell. "Oh, I don't think I can help you with that."

Sora pouted. "How come? You know I'm not good at literature…"

"I would love to help, but…" Kimihiro trailed off and sighed. "I can't believe this never came up before…I have memory problems."

Sora blinked in confusion. "You seem okay to me."

"It's not a conventional problem." Kimihiro tried to think of a way to explain this to a young child. "The things I do remember, I remember very well with high clarity, but…I can go days without a memory that stays."

Sora's mouth fell open. "What?!"

"Yeah, I think I've got…2 or 3 years worth of memories."

"But-but-You're smart!"

Kimihiro chuckled. "Well, there are two types of memories: Memories of the heart, and memories of the body. Memories of the heart are what people think of when they think of memories. It's what allows us to remember important people and events in our lives. That's what I have a problem with. I just can't seem to hold onto anything that could be considered important. Can't even remember anything about the islanders besides your friends or what my food tastes like…"

"What about me?" Sora was looking at Kimihiro with big, frightened eyes. "You know me, right? You won't forget me, will you?"

Kimihiro's face softened as he enveloped Sora in a hug. "You are far too precious for me to ever forget you. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."


End file.
